Semiconductor devices are used in a variety of electronic applications, such as personal computers, cell phones, digital cameras, and other electronic equipment, as examples. Identical semiconductor devices are fabricated in a large substrate or wafer and separated into a plurality of individual units or identical semiconductor devices using dicing. The wafer may also be thinned during or after the dicing process and contacts are formed to couple to the functional units within the semiconductor device.
However, conventional dicing process can result in electrical shorts during subsequent contact formation. Therefore, what are needed in the art are improvements in dicing and contact formation.